Last we heard, Simon Kinberg was working on a script for the sequel to X-Men: First Class, though it’s probably worth mentioning that this was not formally announced and came from, ultimately, an anonymous source.

More transparent, I suppose, is info direct from those involved in the films. During interviews to promote Arthur Christmas, James McAvoy has been talking, just a little, about where the X-sequel stands right now.

I know that with Charles, you either have to write him out of the movie or give him an interesting story… He’s lost his best friend, essentially, and he’s just been paralyzed from the waist down. Which is just a huge, huge blow to his considerable ego. So he’s got to deal with that.

I don’t care if he’s a superhero and has brain powers or not, he’s just had a huge part of his physical life taken away from him, by someone he cares about more than anyone else. So he’s got to deal with that. That’s part of the interesting ideas that we’re talking about with Matthew [Vaughn], that Matthew’s very excited about which I think is fantastic, but I can’t really get into them with you because they may (or may not) form the spine of the story…

…That’s what Matthew is talking about, he’s come up with a particularly interesting idea, last time I spoke with him. So he’s pitching that to Fox, and they’ve basically just got to write the script.

I don’t think he meant to make the writing of a whole script seem like something so minor, even if Vaughn and Jane Goldman did manage to script the first part in super-quick time.

Good to hear Vaughn is involved and focused on finding a strong character story – and particularly one that looks into this interesting period in Xavier’s life. Could help the film feel as fresh as the last one.